Tag Archives: human hair

Studio Swine‘s Azusa Murkakmi and Alexander Groves specialize in creating exquisite designs out of discarded objects (aka trash). For the pair’s latest project, they turned to an alternative unwanted material: discarded locks of human hair. With it, the designers at Studio Swine created Hair Highway, a series of beautiful functional and decorative objects that mimic the look and texture of hardwood but are in fact made of human hair. Mixed with resins and dye, the hair turns to a hard material, one that becomes a potential functional and decorative piece of art work. Each of the objects in the series looks as if it is carved from tropical wood, horn, and tortoise shell yet they were produced at a fraction of the cost with the human hair. According to the duo, hair is in many ways a perfect sustainable resource. It grows up to 16 times faster than many tropical hardwoods, and it’s incredibly strong as well.

Artistic duo Fantich & Young, featured previously for their “power suit” made of human hair, are at it again with a new pair of shoes for little girls: an adorable pair of Mary Janes with a sole of human teeth. Upon first inspection, the tiny shoes are certainly the height of innocence, with their shiny surface and chunky red strap. With the addition of the teeth, top and bottom rows muddled together monstrously, this beacon of cuteness becomes dark and deadly. The festive footwear, which we might easily imagine paired with white ruffled ankle socks, are embellished with actual dentures, signifying old age and decay. The yellowed incisors, crushed brutally underfoot, provide quite an arresting contrast to the quaint little shoes.

In another recent addition to their ongoing project Apex Predator, Dominic Young and Mariana Fantich construct an egg from human dentures. Here, the themes of birth and death, innocence and corruption, emerge more readily. The egg, art historically a symbol of both the fragility and comfort of the the womb, abandons its delicate shell for hard, armored enamel. Arranged in careful rows, the teeth threaten predators who seek to steel the egg from the safety of its nest. This symbol of youth and birth adopts new meaning when made from teeth designed for the old. When hatched, the baby bird is fed his food pre-chewed, regurgitated into his mouth by his mother; this egg comes fully equipped with gnawing teeth. What type of creature might emerge from this monstrous orb? Take a look. (via Design Boom)